The Opsimath

Going beyond PRINCE2

"What comes next?"

This is often a question that people ask once they have got to grips with the project management method PRINCE2. Perhaps they have successfully achieved their Practitioner qualification, and been using it for real for a while. They then want to know what else there is 'around' PRINCE2 that can help them become better at what they do.

Here are a few thoughts:

Programme Management
Often something that is not properly understood by many, programme management offers us a different, yet complementary view to project management. Programmes are about the coordination of a set of related projects, and are focused on transformational change, outcome delivery and benefit realisation. The framework called MSP (Managing Successful Programmes) is widely recognised as the best practice method for programme management. There are qualifications in MSP at Foundation, Practitioner and Advanced Practitioner levels.

Change Management
It can be extremely useful (some would argue vital) to the Project or Programme Manager to consider how individuals, teams and organisations go through change. After all, change is what projects and programmes deliver! A qualification in change management enables you to understand some of the key models, approaches and ideas for taking people successfully through change. Foundation and Practitioner qualifications are available in this fascinating subject.

Risk Management
If you would like to specialise a little, perhaps the Management of Risk (MoR) is for you. MoR goes beyond managing risk at project level and also includes programme, strategic and operational risk management too. Qualifications are available in MoR too.

Programme and Project Offices
Many organisations are seeing the benefits of setting up corporate programme and project offices - sometimes called PMOs. Now there is a set of guidance to help with this too. Referred to as P3O, the Portfolio, Programme and Project Offices guide helps organisations to plan, set up and run just such an office. Is this is an area you are involved with then this is a must for you.

Developing specific skills
Taking a 5-day course in PRINCE2 or MSP only gives you chance to touch lightly on some subjects - things like Business Case management, risk management, stakeholder engagement. You may feel that you would like to know more and to go deeper into this subject. At pearcemayfield we have designed a set of specific skills workshops for just such a purpose. Normally delivered in-house for clients these have been incredibly well-received. Other subjects include facilitation skills, product-based planning, presentation skills, estimating and scheduling, decision-making and finance for project managers.

Want to go 'beyond' PRINCE2? There's plenty of choice for you.

Facilitation - vital skills for a Project Manager

At pearcemayfield we have recently been delivering some really interesting workshops for one of our valued clients around the subject of facilitation skills.

For many project managers (and of course programme and change managers) this is a crucial area. We have to attend many meetings and work with many different groups and teams of people - so how can we ensure that we get the best out of these situations?

During the sessions we looked at many different aspects of facilitation, including a number of do's and don'ts. Here is a list of tips that one group developed. The tips are in no particular order, but I find them very useful and challenging, I hope you do too:

1. Make sure  that no-one feels they are having something done to them
2. Better still - make people in the group feel valued
3. Always begin by establishing the ground rules for the group
4. As a facilitator, always have some stock responses ready to enable you to deal with difficult situations
5. Be aware of the mode in which you are operating and be ready to change it - be self-aware
6. The need for preparation and planning cannot be over-emphasised
7. Keep reading the room and be ready to change the timing and your mode
8. Ensure the right people attend the session
9. Ensure the right person facilitates

BCM? What's a BCM...?

I recently facilitated a programme management workshop, during which we considered some of the key aspects and features of best practice programme management. And if it's best practice programme management our material just had to be based on the guidance known as 'Managing Successful Programmes (MSP).

One of the principles of MSP is that a programme must have a focus on the realisation of benefits, and one of the ways in which MSP helps us to do that is through the role of the Business Change Manager (BCM).

As is often the case on our MSP Practitioner courses, this topic generated a lot of debate. Let me summarise what is often said.

We start with, "Business Change Manager - what is a Business Change Manager", as in many organisations the concept of this role is missing.

Then we move on to discuss why the role is so vital on a programme if we really want to transform the business and deliver real benefits. Delegates in our workshops often get really animated at this point, as they recognise:

1. How essential the role is, because without business involvement we will not see success
2. How we often (wrongly) expect programme managers to carry out the role
3. How, by introducing this role to their programmes, we can take our programmes to a new level of effectiveness.

It is so rewarding to witness the light bulb moments occurring as individuals and teams begin to see what has been missing in their programme organisation structure. The clarity that this discussion often brings is regularly one of the key learning points of this type of workshop.

So, if you are involved in programmes in any way, take a look at your team. Do you have any BCMs?

If not, how's it going?

Change Management - a word from Patrick Mayfield

 

Are you interested in making sense of change management? This short interview with Patrick Mayfield may help you.

Best Practice in India

I recently had the privilege of speaking at the Best Practice Showcase in Bangalore, India.

APMG-India did an excellent job of organising this, their second Showcase event. Something like 120+ people turned out for the event, which started at 5.00pm, meaning that they had already done a day's work and the next day was a national festival and so a holiday. Impressive dedication to project, programme and change management!

This late start meant that we didn't get to eat until gone 10.30 at night - but the food was well worth the wait!

I talked about how we can use Managing Successful Programmes (MSP) and Change Management together to give us the best chance of delivering good business benefits from our projects and programmes - it seemed to be well received (I'll post more about the topic later).

This was my first visit to India (and a brief one at that) - which is really a jolt to the senses and emotions.

Here are just two photographs that indicate the sort of contrasts that I saw. The first one is the very pleasant swimming pool on the roof of the hotel.

Then, just by walking to the edge of the roof and looking over to the neighbouring area, this is the view:

 

Although I'm still working those contrasting images through in my mind I did enjoy the visit. Everyone was very welcoming and we had some excellent conversations. Thank you India!

Raising the level of conscious incompetence in change initiatives

How do I know what I don't know?

Whenever we move into a situation of change there are things that we don't know (such as new skills, competencies, attitudes). Our problem is that we very possibly do not know that we don't know those things. This is called unconscious incompetence.

One of the key things that a change agent or change leader can do is to help people move from this state into a state of conscious incompetence. This is where we still do not know the new things, but now we are aware of that fact.

This awareness is essential if we are going to engage with any learning activity as part of the change programme. Those learning activities will eventually help us to gain the new skills so that we then move to conscious competence, which eventually becomes unconscious competence (when we no longer have to think about the skills; they are embedded).

It's making that first move that is critical. None of us likes to think that our existing skills are no longer needed and that we do not know what we need to know. But 'moving' is essential for the change to eventually take place successfully.

The role of the change agent is so important to help us over our learning anxieties as they 'raise the level' of conscious competence.

Want to know more about change management? Why not take a look at the pearcemayfield website and look at the Change Management Practitioner course, or perhaps the School of Change Management modular qualification.

Engagement - a powerful mindset

One of the better changes in the language of management and business in recent times is the change from 'Stakeholder Management' to 'Stakeholder Engagement'.

The latter phrase, Stakeholder Engagement, expresses a mindset that is a long way away from the idea of trying to 'manage' those people who are interested in and/or affected by our projects and programmes. If we are in any way serious about listening to and communicating with and influencing our stakeholders, we should forget the idea of managing them - that was rarely possible anyway.

Instead, we should learn how to better engage them, and here are three thoughts to consider:

Stop doing things to people;

Start to work together; and so

Become the change we wish to see

If you are engaged in leading change in your organisation, then I encourage you to consider those three thoughts and ask yourself,

Do I have a mindset of engagement?

Why Change Management training should be COMPULSORY for every Project Manager

  Compulsory.

In CAPITAL, yes, UPPER CASE letters.

Far too many project managers have a very short-term view of the change that they are bringing to an organisation. They see the end deliverable of their project - the products, the outcome - as the end of the story. Delivered. Finished.

It is not.

It is, in fact, closer to the start of the story for the receivers of the deliverables (although this does not really begin to describe the true situation either).

Over recent years, our knowledge and skill levels in project management have generally improved, thanks in some part to the growth in methods such as PRINCE2 and Bodies of Knowledge such as PMI and APM.

Our knowledge and skills in Change Management have, however, failed to match that improvement. This leads to the situation where we are better at delivering our projects (to time, cost and so on), yet we are not seeing the project deliverables bring about the expected realisation of benefits.

Why?

Because there is quite a journey between project delivery and the eventual realisation of benefits, and much of that journey revolves around change management.

The soft stuff. Pink and fluffy. It's all a bit herbal, isn't it? (I'm sure you've heard similar opinions expressed about the subject of managing change.)

Well, no. It is a leadership and management challenge that is every bit as demanding as the toughest project.

It's just not that well understood.

Hence the demand for compulsory training.

Or having your project manager's badge taken away, your Gantt chart confiscated, and the lock changed on your Risk Log .

Instant Change? It just doesn't happen that way!

Practitioners in change management know that change does not happen as quickly as many leaders and managers would like it to. You've probably experienced this situation: the manager has decided that change is necessary, so it will just happen, won't it? And it will probably happen just as quickly as that manager imagines!

No it will not. It just won't.

For many people involved in facilitating and leading change there is a word that must be learned.

Perseverance

Rosabeth Moss Kanter writes a lot about perseverance. For example, she says, “Leaders must pick causes they won't abandon easily, remain committed despite setbacks, and communicate their big ideas over and over again in every encounter.”

One thing that she encourages change agents to do is to

stick with it!

We often seek those huge impressive step changes that signify great leaps forward. We equally often find that are not there.

Another Kanter quote. "I've found that small wins, small projects, small differences often make huge differences."

Change - it's not instant

It calls for us to stick at it

Small differences

Perseverance...

More about Best Practice Showcase

Here's what we will be up to at this year's Best Practice Showcase: [click here]

We believe that the topic we are going to tackle is really quite significant. It's called 'The Age of Change Management' and we will be using each of the five sessions that we run during the day to explore what is going well, and what is going not so well in the area of change management.

If you are planning on joining us on Friday 17th June, please come ready and willing to join in the story.

By the way - if you were at the Best Practice Showcase last year you might remember that, at times, it resembled a really busy market place! Fear not. This year our sessions will all be in a private board room so we are assured of a good quality environment.

We would love to see you there...